


Before Hogwarts

by Calling_All_Astronauts



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Pre-Canon, Pre-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-13 00:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9096358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calling_All_Astronauts/pseuds/Calling_All_Astronauts
Summary: Bits and Bobs from some pre-Hogwarts childhoods. I've been wanting to write this for a while cause I'm a sucker for backstories. Definitely included will be *homeschooled* Draco, *bullied* Harry, *nothing-special* Ron and *expelled* Hermione. Hope you enjoy, I've had a lot of fun so far working on the first chapter! ^^





	

“Draco.” 

Lucius Malfoy’s smooth voice stretched the length of the dinner table and the young boy looked up: neatly combed hair plastered to his head and round eyes shining with a desperate urge to please. 

“Yes, Father?” He asked and his voice was strangely formal: as though he did not know how to address the man before him. It was hardly surprising really, as Lucius rarely addressed his son at mealtimes and Draco was explicitly forbidden to speak without permission. 

“I have been thinking about your schooling.” The pale man began: his long fingers steepling into an arch that cast frightening shadows on the wall behind him.

“Yes Fathe-” Draco began but Lucius lifted a wiry hand to silence his son. 

“Don’t interrupt me, Draco.” He said sternly and the young boy swallowed an apology. 

“I have tried to teach you well,” He continued. “I have hired the best teachers, spent hundreds of galleons ensuring you are well versed in history, mathematics and literature. All the things a boy of your age should know and, dare I say it, you have been doing adequately.” The corner of the child’s mouth quirked upwards at the compliment but the smile died on his lips when his father narrowed his eyebrows. 

“And yet.” He said quietly. “You lack the leadership and control I had hoped for you. You let your mother baby you.”

There was a long pause.

“In short: you refuse to grow up.” 

Draco held his breath. 

He was six years old and already a crushing disappointment to his father. He knew he should be pulling away from his mother: standing on his own two feet, as his father called it but she still seemed to need him so much. She looked like a ghost sometimes: so lost and lonely. The only thing that was sure to put a smile on her face still was mothering her son. That was why he let her brush his hair and help him with his buttons, to read him stories at bedtime and cuddle him close: All things that enraged his father and had caused endless rows in the Malfoy household. 

“Have you nothing to say for yourself?” Lucius scowled. “Perhaps I should send you away? No one will pander to you at Frau-Hurst’s.” 

Frau-Hurst’s- a wizarding prep school in Germany where the discipline was notoriously strict and the teachers did nothing to stop bullying and abuse. Lucius often mentioned the school in an attempt to threaten his son into behaving and Draco could not help but cry out in terror when he heard the name.

“No Father!” He begged. “Please don’t send me away! I won’t let mother dress me, I’ll concentrate on my studies. I’ll do anything you want just- please don’t send me there!”

Lucius smirked. “I think it would do you good to be in the company of other boys, Draco. Do you know what they do to Pansies at Frau-Hurst’s?” He taunted. “They flush their pathetic little heads down the toilet. Do you want that to happen to you?”

“No Father.” He said earnestly.

“Then you’d better toughen up hadn’t you?”

“Yes, Father. Please don’t send me away.”

Lucius scowled, his face contorting into an ugly sneer as he mimicked his son’s tone: “Please don’t send me away Father.” He whined. 

Draco simply held his breath. He was used to the taunting by now and besides: he knew he deserved it.

“I will give you one year, Boy. One year to prove you’re not as washed out and pathetic as you seem. You are a disgrace to the Malfoy name.”

“I know Father,” Draco said quietly.

“I know Father.” Lucius mimicked before his face settled back into its usual bad-tempered glare. “I have already made new arrangements for your education. Arrangements that I hope will rid you of your mother’s smothering ways.”

“Frau-Hurst’s?” Draco asked, appalled, but the man shook his head.

“Not yet.” He said and the threat hung in the air between them like a kind of smoke. “It is time you learnt to mix with other children. The right sort of children.” He added and he didn’t need to clarify what he meant. “I have been in touch with some friends. They have sons of your age and have agreed to let them attend lessons with you here. The Nursery will be torn down and a schoolroom built.”

Draco bit his lip, fighting the urge to cry. The Nursery had always been his favourite room and he didn’t need to look at his father’s face to know that nothing would be spared in the renovation: though he was more upset for his mother than for himself. She loved spending time with her son in the light and spacious, room: singing to him, listening to his stories and watching him play with his toys. He supposed all of that would stop now.

Lucius eyed his son warily, sensing his thoughts but choosing to say nothing. “Your Godfather has also agreed to offer you some... private tuition.”

“Magic?” Draco asked, his eyebrows lifting in excitement.

“Yes.” His father said and Draco smiled- his first real smile in some time. That certainly took the sting out of losing the nursery: who needed toys when you could play with Magic. 

“But,” The man said sharply, dragging his son back from the cusp of what would likely have become a very pleasing daydream. “You must tell no one. I have gone to a great deal of trouble convincing Severus that you are old enough to concentrate and learn. Do not let me down Draco.”

“I won’t! I promise I won’t!” The boy smiled.

“Good,” Lucius said calmly. “Because if you do, I will not think twice about shipping you off to complete your schooling somewhere less pleasant.”

As he lay in bed that night, Draco couldn’t help but feel excited. He was going to learn magic and his mind was already awash with fantasies of himself impressing his father by learning a really difficult spell. He wasn’t sure what it would be yet but he knew it would be good and he could just imagine the look on his father’s face as he looked down and spoke the five words Draco longed to hear more than anything:

“I’m so proud of you.”


End file.
